Speech pathology clinic

Federation Speech Pathology Clinic (FSPC)

The clinic is managed and run by qualified Speech Pathologists and our Speech Pathology students, as part of their Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) and Master of Speech Pathology courses at Fed Uni.

Available services

Children and adolescents

  • Paediatric screenings at pre-schools & primary schools
  • Speech Pathology services at Berwick clinic

Assessment and treatment for:

  • Age range of between 4-16 years
  • Screenings to help identify issues that might include:
    - Problems with pronunciation (articulation/phonology)
    - Early literacy skills (phonological awareness)
    - Language skills (understanding and expression of oral language)

Adults

  • Group communication skills for adults with aphasia or TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) at Berwick clinic

All treatment sessions will be run in blocks: We offer assessment and treatment in blocks of therapy of five weeks duration. If further blocks are required, we will manage this as per our waiting list procedure.

Telehealth sessions are available.

Opening hours

The Federation Speech Pathology Clinic is open 3 days per week from Wednesday to Friday - 40 weeks per year with student supervision at all times.

Referrals

The FSPC Team will triage all referrals and contact clients for appointment bookings as soon as possible after receiving the referral.

Although we are accepting referrals from now with a view of beginning the sessions in November 2024, we cannot guarantee your successful enrolment in our services.

Location and contact

The Federation Speech Pathology Clinic is located at Building 901 – Level 1 – Room 102, 100 Clyde Road in Berwick. Please see the campus map here.

Parking

Please park at the front end of Car Park A closest to Building 901. If you enter the campus via Clyde Road, please turn right at the first roundabout to find available parking spaces. The first hour of parking is free, following that the rate is $4 per hour via the ticket machines.

Phone: (03) 8780 5762

Email: fspc@federation.edu.au

Welcome to our clinic referral system!

Referrals can be made by allied/health professionals, teachers and other professionals. We also accept direct referrals from individuals or family members for their child.

FSPC Eligibility

A person (child or adult) must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the clinic:

  • Age range of between 4-12 years of age (for Kinder/Early primary school screenings) or adolescents up to 16 years of age;
  • Requiring support with:
    - Pronunciation (articulation/phonology)
    - Early literacy skills (phonological awareness)
    - Language skills (understanding and expression of oral language)
  • Adults with aphasia or TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) in need for group communication skills development and practice

Please select the correct referral form to complete the process. Thank you!

We charge a fee for Speech Pathology assessment and intervention services.

Initial and ongoing consultations: $30 per half hour ($25 concession card holder) Initial consultations are usually scheduled for an hour at a time (if further time is required to complete the assessment, further charges will be applied, per half hour basis). Ongoing consultations are usually scheduled for half an hour.

Adult group communication groups: $20 per hour group session (on average, 4-5 people per group) We aim to have group sessions once per week for the duration of a five-week block, with a possible extension into the next block period.

Please click here to make your payment - thank you.

Please note that FSPC is not a registered NDIS provider and services are not rebatable by Medicare or private health insurance.

Cancellations

FSPC sends emails and SMS to confirm all appointments prior to the session to avoid 'no-shows'. Last minute cancellations can occur for many reasons including illness, an accident, power outage or an extreme weather event which will be considered on an individual bases. Cancellations with at least 24 hours’ notice will not incur a cancellation fee.

However, cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice will incur a fee of 100% of the session fee unless there are extreme circumstances as mentioned above. Consistent cancellations within a block of appointments will prohibit the continuation of therapy at FSPC resulting in sessions being put on hold. Clients who cannot attend their appointment onsite, can have a telehealth appointment instead. Non-face to face services* can be scheduled, however, they will attract a fee of $30 per half hour.

*Non-face to face services are meetings via teleconference (School meetings and/or meetings with wider healthcare team); letters & reports (Assessment, review, and progress reports); and/or home program therapy activities.

In addition to the privacy policy by Federation University (Privacy statement - Federation University Australia), we are committed to handling personal information about you, including health information about you, in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and contact us if you have any questions.

Type of personal information collected

We collect and hold the following kind of information about you:

  • your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
  • information about your family or relatives
  • information about other health professionals involved in your care
  • other health information about you such as: a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment we give you:
    • specialist reports
    • test results
    • your appointment details
    • your prescriptions
    • other information about you collected for the purposes of providing care to you

In Victoria, privacy law requires a health service provider to keep records for 7 years or, in the case of a child, until the child turns 25. For more information about state and territory privacy laws, see Privacy in your State.

Collection and use of personal information

We generally collect your personal information from your health provider referring to us and/or from you directly during the appointment with us. We use this information to provide speech pathology services to you and to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services.

Disclosure of personal information

We may disclose information about you to others outside of our practice as permitted or required under law. This will include situations where we disclose information about you in order:

  • to comply with our legal obligations (e.g., mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
  • to consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare
  • to get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
  • to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety
  • to help in locating a missing person

Access to and correction of personal information

You have the right to seek access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you.

Correction: If you believe that any information, we hold is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, please contact us by email. We will respond to any request within a
reasonable time. We will endeavor to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you. These are designed to prevent unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure and to prevent misuse and loss. This includes:

  • holding information on an encrypted database
  • holding information in secure cloud storage
  • getting staff to sign confidentiality documents
  • providing staff with training or induction etc. about confidentiality and (in particular) security issues
  • access to information restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis and
  • strong password protections when accessing the information on a computer.

Disclosing information overseas

For documentation purposes of the consultations, Cliniko data management software is used for the management of the clinic. Cliniko is a secure software commonly used in private practices. Fed Uni will be disclosing your health information to Cliniko, who may transmit that information to its sub- processors in other countries (overseas) for the purpose of administering their health information. For more information, please visit: https://www.cliniko.com/policies/privacy/

Complaints about breach

If you have concerns about the way we’ve handled your privacy, let us know. You should do that in writing. We will then try to respond to you within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commission, whose contact details are:

Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney New South Wales 2001
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints

Updates

We will update this policy from time to time, to reflect any changes in our information-handling
practices or the law or both. We will notify you of changes to the policy by posting it onto our website.

Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics

It is fundamental to the professional responsibilities of speech pathologists to observe the highest standards of integrity and ethical practice. You can read the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Conduct here.

National Code of Conduct

You should expect safe and ethical healthcare from every health service you use. That’s why there is a Code of Conduct for general health services. You can read the code here.

Contact

For any questions, concerns or complaints, please contact us at fspc@federation.edu.au